Name of repository
Special Collections Department
Harvard Law School Library
Address
Langdell Hall
1545 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Mindy Spitzer Johnston
Curator of Digital and Visual Resources
Telephone
617-495-3150
Fax
617-495-8588
Email
mjohnston@law.harvard.edu
Description of Special Collections at the Harvard Law School Library
With nearly two thousand linear feet of manuscripts, approximately two
hundred thousand rare books, and more than seventy thousand paintings,
prints, photographs, and other visual materials, the Special Collections
Department houses one of the world's most comprehensive collections
of research materials for the study of legal history. Its chief mission
is to acquire, catalog, preserve, and make available to researchers
materials that document the history of the law in general and of Anglo-American
law in particular. Secondary goals include publicizing the existence
of and fostering interest in these collections through Library exhibitions,
classroom presentations, Web pages and digital collections, and the
publication of finding aids and exhibition catalogs.
The Department serves the research needs of the immediate Harvard Law
School community, the Harvard University community, and the scholarly
world at large. Although the Department was organized as an administrative
unit only in 1985, the history of the collecting of historical legal
materials at the Harvard Law School Library dates to the founding of
the Law School in 1817. Recent
scholarship that has drawn on these collections
conveys a good sense of the depth of the Library's holdings of primary
research materials for legal history. The Department welcomes donations
of materials consistent with its collecting
policy.
Description of Image Holdings
The Art Collection and Visual Materials Collection documents the legal
profession and the history of the law with paintings, sculpture, photographs,
prints, drawings and artifacts. It was gathered initially by Dean Roscoe
Pound and Librarian Eldon Revere James. It consists of over 45,000 items,
including portraits of lawyers and judges, and prints and sculptures
with legal themes. Over 300 paintings and sculptures are on display throughout
the School. Some of the most outstanding of these, along with the rare
volumes on law, are kept in the Caspersen Room. The rest, some 6,000
prints and over 40,000 photographs, are a valuable resource of the Library.
All are available for reproduction in books and other publications, for
display in exhibitions, television programs, and other media. A collection
of materials that forms a visual history of the Law School is also available.
What’s in VIA?
There are currently over 3,000 records in VIA. The vast majority of
these are from the Legal Portrait Collection of notable figures from
legal history and were generated in the course of our Library Digital
Initiative project. [See http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/special/collections/portraits/]
In addition, new acquisitions are currently being added to the database.
How we use VIA
Our approach to cataloging has been at the item level and thus each “work” record
represents an original item from the collections. We have contributed
a few “group” records, mainly for items such as bound collections
of images and photograph albums. The collections are focussed on historical
content and this is reflected in the subject headings assigned to the
images.
Permissions
The digital copy of any Harvard Law School Library image found in VIA
is for personal use only, and may not be sold, loaned, copied or published
without the express permission of the Harvard Law School Library.
Reproduction
For use of this image in any medium, please contact the Harvard Law
School Library.
Copyright
The President and Fellows of Harvard College make no representation
that they are the owner of the copyright; any researcher wishing to
make such use of the image must therefore assume all responsibility
for clearing reproduction rights and for any infringement of Title
17 of the United States Code.
